March 29: The spat between companies competing for lucrative orders for trucks for the military is out in the open.

Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh had claimed that he was offered a Rs 14-crore bribe to renew a contract for trucks supplied by defence public sector Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) and sourced from Tatra, a Czech company owned by Ravi Rishi, a non-resident Indian.

The chairman of the Bengal-based heavy vehicles firm, Ural India, J.K. Saraff today rubbished charges from Rishi that his company had failed to pass the army’s trials.

Rishi, the chairman of the Vectra Group that owns the Tatra brand, had said yesterday that his company “does not need canvassing or selling agents” because the Tatra all-terrain trucks had suited the Indian Army’s needs while all its competitors had failed.

Tatra trucks have been used by the army since 1986 but the army chief has called them sub-standard. Now, defence minister A.K. Antony too is to be questioned by the CBI in its investigation into the army chief’s charge that a former officer acting for Tatra had offered him the bribe of Rs 14 crore.

“We have asked for a comprehensive investigation,” Antony said today.

The chairman-cum-managing director of BEML, V.R.S. Natarajan, also claimed that the public sector unit manufactures the trucks and supplies them whole.

But the trucks have Czech-origin engines, flexible axles and gearboxes. It is also left-hand driven, unlike vehicles in India that are right-hand driven. BEML also has to pay licence fees to Tatra.

Ural India is one of the competitors against Tatra. Ural India is an India-Russia joint venture with Russian-origin engines. Among other competitors are the Tatas, in collaboration with Rheinmetall, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and AMW.

Saraff, the Ural India head, said: “Our products have proved to be the best and have not at all been rejected nor have they failed. Moreover, the 2011 trials are yet to be completed. So how do they know that our products have failed?”

The estimated requirement for heavy vehicles by the Indian Army is huge. The army has projected a need for 4,000 light armoured vehicles, 1,500 light bullet-proof vehicles, 4,500 light specialist vehicles and at least 16,000 infantry combat vehicles. This list does not even take into account the number of heavier vehicles that would be needed to tow Howitzers — a deal that has been practically frozen since Bofors broke in 1986-87.

The BEML chairman had told the media yesterday that trials for an order of 1,200 off-road (8X8 and 6X6) vehicles were on for the army, with the Tatra vehicle facing competition from the Ural (a product from the joint venture between Russia’s Uralaz and the Bengal-located Motijug Industries) and offerings from Ashok Leyland and the Tatas. He claimed that Ural had failed in the trials.

Reacting to Vectra chairman Rishi’s allegation that the army chief was working “at the behest of Ural trucks”, Saraff said: “It is being said that army chief Gen. V.K. Singh is from the east and so he is promoting us. But where is he promoting us? The army is yet to buy any of our trucks nor have they placed any orders with us. In fact, we have been sending our trucks for trials since 2004 and we are yet to get any written response or report from the army.”

Gen. V.K. Singh was eastern army commander before taking over as the army chief.

Motijug Group signed an MoU with Ural Asia in 2004 and on October 4, 2004, it sent its trucks for an army trial. “We had an army trial of our 6x6 high mobility vehicle (HMV) on a no cost no commitment (NCNC) basis. This was the start of Ural India,” said Saraff.

“When we insisted on a written report on the trials, a letter from Brigadier Harmesh Sethi dated September 2006 said the Ural trucks had been tested on the request of the firm and the army was not bound to provide any report on the testing of the vehicles.”

Again in April 2009, there was another request for trials of Ural trucks to the Eastern Command. This was high altitude testing at 19,000 feet at –22 degree centigrade in Sikkim. An in-house report of Ural India said four of the eight Tatra 6x6 HMVs developed engine defects because of the rarefied atmosphere while all the Ural vehicles passed the test.

“When we again asked them for reports they told us ‘when we buy, we will send tenders’,” said Saraff. Again in 2011, three of Ural’s trucks, 2 HMVs and one field artillery tractor are being tested at different locations.

Saraff, who has a manufacturing facility spread over 100 acres in Haldia with an investment of Rs 100 crore, said: “We would in fact want the state government to further our cause with the central government so that industries like ours can thrive in West Bengal.”

Alleging that the Tatra vehicles are all left-hand drives, Saraff said: “Our vehicles have a localisation of 65 per cent and are very competitively priced compared to the Tatra vehicles.”